PRODUCT FOCUS: HOSPITALS & HEALTHCARE FACILITIES CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH Chris Wakefield, Vice President, European Marketing & Product Development, GOJO


Industries-Europe Ltd, discusses how an effective hand hygiene system can help healthcare and hospital FMs keep their facilities clean and germ-free.


Viruses thrive in closed environments where people come into constant contact with each other – and healthcare facilities are a haven for them. It is therefore essential to ensure that a comprehensive cleaning regime is implemented. However, pathogens can hide and breed in the most unlikely places, and surfaces that have different hands touching them frequently, such as curtains, lift buttons, and computer keyboards, are the ones most often found harbouring bacteria.


The screens and buttons of mobile phones that sit in handbags or pockets (belonging to patients, visitors and staff), for example, are rife with germs. Research has found that smartphones could be covered in up to ten times as much bacteria as a toilet seat and that people now check their smartphones, on average, every 12 minutes of the waking day.


“Hundreds of studies have proven that good hand hygiene helps to prevent serious contagions from


spreading, and to reduce healthcare associated infections by up to 50%.”


Did you also know that contaminated hands can sequentially transfer some viruses to up to seven surfaces, or that 14 people can be contaminated by touching the same object one after the other? Taking this into account, it’s critical that an effective hand hygiene system is implemented alongside regular and thorough cleaning, to keep facilities healthy and hygienic. Hundreds of studies have proven that good hand hygiene helps to prevent serious contagions from spreading, and to


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reduce healthcare associated infections by up to 50%.


As a founder member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Private Organizations for Patient Safety group, GOJO is a strong advocate of the ‘total solution’ approach to making hand hygiene second nature to everyone in a medical setting. Healthcare workers already make this a part of their daily lives, but visitors and patients must also be reminded to do so. GOJO’s


total solution approach recognises three key strategies to promote hygienic and compliant hand hygiene behaviour.


Firstly, handwashing facilities must be accessible and dispensers easy to use. The WHO recommends that an adequate number of appropriately positioned hand hygiene facilities should be readily available at the point of care. There should also be dispensers at key germ hotspots such as waiting areas, washrooms or at ward entrances for patients and visitors to access and use.


Secondly, it is important to ensure that the formulations are hospital grade, complying with key clinical norms EN 1500, EN 14476 and EN 12791. Due to the high frequency that healthcare workers wash or sanitise their hands, these must also be gentle to skin.


Thirdly, eye-catching signage is very effective as a prompt to influence healthy, hygienic behaviour.


It is also key that facilities are always well-stocked and maintained. GOJO has recently developed PURELL SMARTLINK technology, which consists of two mobile smart apps that measure hand hygiene compliance, offer clinician-based support, and monitor dispenser health. These systems eliminate the need to rely on human judgement, giving the manager control to effectively plan stock replacement, staffing allocations and training requirements, all from their phone or tablet.


www.gojo.com twitter.com/TomorrowsFM


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